The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-03-03
Relations of Habit to Ethics.

This brings us by very natural
transition to the ethical implications of
the law of habit. They are numerous
and momentous. DR.. Carpenter, from
whose .'Mental Physiology we have
quoted, has so prominently enforced
the principle that our organs grow to
the way in which they have been eX-
ercised, and dwelt upon its conse-
quences, that his book almost deserves
to be called work of edification, on
this account alone. We need make no
apology, then, for tracing Il few of
these consequences ourselves:
Habit second nature! Habit is
ten times nature" the Duke of Well
ington is said to have exclaimed; and
the degree. to which this is true no one
can probably appreciate as well as one
who is veteran soldier himself. The
daily drill and the years of discipline
end by fashioning man completely
over again, as to most of the possibili-
ties of his conduct. There is story,
which is credible enough, though it
may not be true, of a practical joker,
who, seeing a discharged veteran ear
rying home his dinner, suddenly called
out, Attention. whereupon the man
instantly brought his hands down, and
! lost his mutton and potatoes in the
gutter. The drill had been thorough,
/ and its effects had become embodied i'll
! the mans nervous structure"
Riderless cavalry-horses, at many a
! battle, have been seen to come to.
! gether and 90 through their customary
. evolutions az the sound of the buGle-
call, Most trained domestic animals,
dogs, aud oxen, and omnibus and car
horses, seem to be machines almost
pure and simple mdoubtingly, un,
hesitatingly doing from minute tc
minute the duties they have beer
taught, and giving no sign that the
possibility of an alternative ever sug
gests itself to their mind. Men growl
old in prison have asked To he read
mitted after being once set free. In /;
railroad accident to travelling men
agerie in the United States some tim,
in 1884, tiger. whose cage ha(
broken open, is said to have emerged
but presently crept back again, As i
too much bewildered by his new 10
sponsibilities, so that he was withou
difficulty secured.
Habit il thus the enormous fiy-whee
of society, its most precious conserva
tive agent. 1t alone is what keeps IL
Ill within the bounds of ordinance, ant
saves the children of fortune from th
envious uprisings of the poor.
alone prevents the hardest and mos
repulsive walks nf lifo from being de
serted by those brought up to trca
therein. 1t keeps the fisherman an,
the deck-hand at sea through tn
winter; it holds the miner in his dark
ness, and nails the cOuntryman to hi
log-cabin and his lonely farm through
all the months of snow; it protects Il
from invasion by the natives of tn
desert and the frozen zone. 1t doom
US all to fight out the battle of lii
upon the lines of our nurture or ou
early choice, and TO make the best of
pursuit that disagrees, because there
no other for which we are fitted, an
it is too late to begin again. 1t keeI
different social strata from miXin:
Already ut the age of twenty-five yo
see the professional mannerism settlin
down ON the young commercial trave
er, ON the young doctor, on the youn
minister, on the young counselor-a
law. You see the little lines of clea'
age running through the character, tt
tricks of thought, the prejudices, Il
ways of the ''shop" in Il word, fro
which the man can by and by no mo-
escape than his coat-sleeve can sud,ie
5 ly fall into new set of folds. On tt
whole, it is best he should not escap
1t is well for the world that in most
; lis, by the age of thirty, the charact
a has set like plaster, and will new
soften again. Professor William Jans'
in Popular Science Monthly.